LIVE @ The Drake!!

!!!!!!

I'm excited about two things. One: that I'm actually using my blog to talk about something other than Godspell (although I really, really love Godspell). And two: 

I HAVE A SHOW COMING UP!!!! 

On Thursday January 9th, I'm performing with my band at The Underground inside the Drake Hotel (in Toronto)! We'll be bustin' out a full one-hour set of originals from my albums This Moment, Love Lessons & Rebound (all available on iTunes, btw). And maybe a cover or two, 'cause we can ;-). 

Since October, I've been touring the US with the musical Godspell (lucky, blessed ME!), and just came home December 9th for what will be our 5-week hiatus/break.  We hit the road again for Florida, Texas and a few other spots beginning January 13th. Which means, I should probably be using this time off to rest.

BUT... knowing I'd be HOME for FIVE long weeks... I couldn't resist reuniting with my band members (love them), my fans (the real and the imaginary), and the taste of R&B Soul on the tongue. I missed my music!

So here it is... If you can be in Toronto on this night, know that you are invited and that I would LOVE it if you came! I won't be able to perform at home again until the spring/summer, so this gig is special!

All the details are in the beautifully designed flyer below (thanks Ashley!). 

See you there!

Xo,

~ Lisa Michelle

@itslisamichelle

www.ThisIsLisaMichelle.com

www.facebook.com/lisamichellemusic

Godspell Nation Tour: Week 6

Well, O-M-G (pardon my language), but I can't believe this is the FINAL week of the tour before our December hiatus! It's the end of week 6 on the first ever Godspell National Tour, and we fly out this coming Monday to our respective homes. Well some people are flying straight to their vacation spots, but the point is, we're leaving the tour until it starts up again in mid-January.

The truth? I'm very excited about going home.  Because like most, I miss my family, I miss eating food that didn't come from a restaurant (or truck stop), I want to rest my body and I really can't wait to see my regular hairstylist. BUT... I know for a fact that I am going to miss the heck out of the show AND I'm going to miss seeing all the pretty Godspell faces I get to see everyday when I'm here. Have I made it clear in my other posts how much we love eachother? Yes? Okay, good. 

For this last week before the break, we get to live and perform in the beautiful city of Charlotte, North Carolina. It's significant because we've been doing so many one or two-nighters, moving from city-to-city, so being in one place for a little while is quite refreshing. We've been able to unpack and settle in a bit - a simple thing you might take for granted until you've lived without a home base for a time. 

It took us two days and two overnight stops to drive here from Crockett, Texas. OH YEAH!!! Crockett, Texas! That was the super-small theatre we played in last Friday night, where we'd been warned that our set & lighting would be significantly scaled back. Well, I'm a little sad to report that there isn't much to report, lol. We were actually able to fit our colourful, round stage inside the theatre, we just had less space than we normally do around our disc. There were also no stage wings and the lighting was... different. But overall, we didn't have to change much, just a few tweaks in the blocking here and there, but that was it. Another good show. It's not that I WANTED anything to go wrong, I just think we were prepared for a bigger challenge than the one that was presented to us. Ah well... I think this just means that we're awesome. Let's go with that.

After Crockett, we stopped one night  in Jackson, Mississippi and another in Atlanta, Georgia. My cast mate Stacey Kay had the brilliant idea to look up concerts in the area when we got to Atlanta and stumbled on info for Kanye West tickets! As it turned out, only myself, Stacey and our conductor John Yun went to the concert and had an amazing time. But not before becoming entangled in a CRAZY fiasco to get the tickets in the first place.  I have no idea what the rest of the cast and crew did that night, but I know my outing with Stacey and John ended with a fireman-carry, cold pizza and my foot in an ice bucket.

Fast-forward to this week. We arrived in Charlotte on Monday and the first thing we see before stepping foot off the tour bus is our faces on lampposts all over the downtown core. You know, those little lamp post banner-thingies? We screamed. You would too.

Graham on a lamp post in Charlotte, NC

We had our first show here at the Knight Theatre on Tuesday evening and the crowd was amazing. Since we have a full week's stay here, it seems there was time to generate a good buzz about Godspell before we got here and it showed. We were graciously treated to a post-show reception that night, and were made to feel like stars. I really can't believe this is a job sometimes. I mean, performing is hard work no doubt (just ask my joints), but the rewards can be so grand. 

Today during some down time, a bunch of us decided to go on a segway tour of the city! I'd never ridden one before, but it always looked like fun, so why not! I was a little nervous in the beginning, as the segways are quite sensitive and move very fast if you let them. But we all got the hang of it in no time and had SO much fun learning some haunted history and zipping around town on this strange-looking vehicle. 

Our tour guide was amazing and is apparently coming to our show tonight! 

We have five more shows here in Charlotte this weekend: tonight, two tomorrow (Saturday) and two on Sunday. We're closing out this leg of the tour with a Kris Kringle party and a Christmas Carol Cabaret in our hotel's restaurant. Again... how am I NOT going to miss this?!?! Even though we have another tour leg in January, I feel there's going to be a lot of weeping during our last show this Sunday. Well, a lot MORE weeping than usual. Uh oh, I hope I'm not giving too much away. You see in Godspell, one of our friends dies and... I've already said too much.

To my faithful readers, this will be the last 'official' Godspell National Tour blog post until the new year, but I will indeed still be blogging throughout December. I'm sure I'll be involved in other exciting or interesting shenanigans before the next tour leg, likely even with some members of my Godspell family. So feel free to still check back here, or on my facebook (www.facebook.com/lisamichellemusic) for new posts and thangs.

Wish us broken legs for our shows this weekend and I'll talk to you soon!!!

Love to you from me... and from Godspell! 

Xo

~ Lisa Michelle

Twitter: @itslisamichelle

#GodspellNationalTour

Godspell National Tour: Week 5

Here we are at the end of week 5 on the Godspell National Tour! Just one week left until we fly home to Ontario (then we hit the road again mid-January).

When I left you last Friday, we were set to perform in Clinton Township, Michigan that night. It was another fun show and surprise, surprise: our director David Hogan and musical director Mark Payne drove across the border to see us!  More than just the 'creative team', they're also the heart of this Godspell family. Thankfully, we did them proud and they loved the show. It was really nice to see them after all this time, though they couldn't stay for long. They were in the middle of producing yet another stellar show back home!

The cast & friends w/ dir: David Hogan & musical director Mark Payne in Michigan

We performed twice more at the Macombe Center in Michigan the next day (Saturday), and were fed and watered by an older lady known simply as "Mom". She's a long-time matriarch and employee of the theatre who's as sassy as she is generous, and as witty as she is petite. She graciously prepared a huge thanksgiving feast for us between our matinée and evening performances. 

We also had a number of out-of-town visitors that weekend including parents and grandparents, wives & kids, siblings, friends, and by the time we got to Texas on Monday, my husband joined the fold too! We like to think of these people as honourary Godspellers. And/or groupies. 

Alessia with friend Aly Workman

We arrived in Austin, Texas on Sunday night after a stopover in Charlotte and a few delays. It was the first flight we'd taken on the tour so far (we've been travelling solely by bus), and it went pretty well, all things considered.  We had the next day (Monday) off, so that's when our Texas adventures began. 

A bunch of us sat down for an authentic Tex-Mex lunch and it was gooood. I was the first to brave a server-recommended drink called 'The Hurricane' that was a tasty blend of EVERYTHING. It was icy, sweet and so strong that it was probably the only drink I needed for the rest of the day... or week (as if). Some castmates began a bar-hopping expedition after our spicy lunch that continued into the wee hours of the morning! Texas has amazing night life & a thriving live music scene, so naturally it's become the new favourite tour stop for many of us (I'm still holding on to good memories of St. Louis, but that's just me :-).

Bright and early on Tuesday morning, Jake Stern, Alessia Lupiano and myself had an interview at KUT - a radio station operated out of the University of Texas.  The host was (unintentionally) hilarious, teasing Jake about his cowboy hat, leading us into an impromptu acapella performance, and closing our interview with some random song called "Day After Day" because he couldn't find the song "Day BY Day" in his track listings (the one that's actually in our show). So much funny in a single morning.

Alessia, Jake and I after our KUT interview

Amidst all these Texas shenanigans, we had a SHOW to put on! Tuesday night was our first show in Austin at the Long Center for the Performing Arts. It's a phenomenal venue, seating approximately 2500 patrons, and the crowd was on fire! It was one of our most exciting shows, where the audience was with us from note-to-note. 

Our stellar band at the Long Center in Austin, Texas

These were painted all over the sidewalk outside the Long Center:

Wednesday night was another great show, another great night on the town afterwards, and Thursday we were blessed with an American Thanksgiving Dinner at one of the few local restaurants that were still open. After dinner, some of our crazy little bunch went to a make-shift amusement park situated behind our hotel. Bumper cars, rides and gaming ensued, with winners and stuffed thingies all-around. The fun just never stops. Unless you're this guy:

Jake's new bus-buddy

It's Friday, and we've just arrived in Crockett, Texas for another show tonight. It's a wee little town with a population smaller than the seating capacity in some of the venues we've played thus far. Apparently the theatre here is unable to house some of our larger set pieces like... our stage. And much of our lighting. But have you MET this Godspell cast & crew? Do you know what we say to that??? Challenge accepted. Our set may be scaled back, but our performances would never and could never be.

I can't wait to tell you how it all went down in next week's post. So check back!

Xoxoxox

~ Lisa Michelle

Tweet us! Use the hashtag: #GodspellNationalTour

Godspell National Tour: Week 4 update!

Time is flying by! We're already at the end of week 4 of the Godspell National Tour, and we've just left Kalamazoo. Yep. It's a real place. And nope. Nothing to see there. 

But that was just a 2-day pit stop as we made our way to where we are now: Clinton Township, Michigan. We have three performances here this weekend, beginning tonight at 7:30. Some cast members have family and friends visiting from back home this weekend, and in good time too. A taste of home is just what some of us need at this point.

When I posted last week's update, we were about to begin performances at the Peabody Opera House in St. Louis, Missouri. Once again, we were able to make our mark in another great city, and inside their theatre's walls:

Peabody Opera House in St. Louis, MI

Before leaving St. Louis, we celebrated cast member Michael DeRose's birthday! We held a pseudo-surprise soirée for him in Jesus' hotel room, then skipped out to a fantastic live music joint called BB's Blues Bar. The band was i-n-c-r-e-d-i-b-l-e. When we weren't salivating over their musicianship like the geeks we are, we were tearin' up the dance floor to the beat of their funked out, soul-stirring set list. It was the final note on why St. Louis has been my favourite stop on the tour thus far.

Love for Michael De Rose! :-)

We also performed at the Grand Theatre in Wausau, Wisconsin this week. I'm still not sure how to pronounce that, but I can tell you they gave us another beautiful house; velvety red seats, exquisite design, and the 'wow-this-place-is-huge' vastness. We've been very lucky, as all the venues we've played on this tour have been aesthetically impressive. Hence the intense camera-phone action that happens upon our arrival in every new place.

Grand Theatre in Wausau, WI

Well today's blog was kinda late, so once again I'm dashing off to eat and get set for another evening show. And to break all my legs, of course :-).

Talk to you next week! xox

~ Lisa Michelle

Twitter: #GodspellNationalTour

Godspell National Tour: Week 3

Today marks the end of week 3 on our Godspell National Tour!

Right now, we're in St. Louis, Missouri and have our first show here at the Peabody Opera House tonight! We arrived here on Wednesday afternoon after 3 days of driving and nightly pit stops from New Jersey, so tonight will actually be our first performance since last Sunday!  

Since getting off the bus on Wednesday, we've been making the absolute MOST of our time off and have been having an amazing time in St. Louis so far.  Just some of the things our group has gotten into include visiting the Gateway Arch (a 630-foot monument), getting spa massages, enjoying the food, daytime strolls and a trip to the St. Louis Zoo.

The highlight was our excursion to an NHL game last night at the Scottrade Centre! I'm certainly not the world's biggest hockey fan and yet it was still an extraordinary experience. We had great seats, "our" home team the St. Louis Blues SLAYED with a 7-3 win, we got to meet the players and coaches AND Godspell got so much love on the big screen. A huge thank you to our generous stage manager Paul Pembleton for organizing, and to Jesus, *ahem*... Jake for his star-power connections. It was a wild night!!!

I must say, our good times have been well-earned at this point... We recently came out of a crazy, hectic journey of 8 shows in 6 days in 6 different cities. That means daily traveling, one-nighter hotel stints, lots of go-go-go, and most notably; little time to rest our bodies and vocal chops between shows. Here's how it went down:

Tues Nov 5: Capitol Centre in Concord, New Hampshire

Wed Nov 6: Zelterion Theatre in New Bedford, Maine

Thurs Nov 7: Symphony Hall in Springrield, MA

Fri Nov 8: Tilles Centre in Greenvale, NY

Sat Nov 9: Proctor's Theatre in Schenectady, NY (2 shows)

Sun Nov 10: State Theatre/New Brunswick, NJ (2 shows)

Symphony Hall, Springfield MA

Inside Proctors Theatre, Schenectady NY

Tilles Centre, Greenvale NY

If you've seen our production of Godspell, than you are privy to just how much physical and spiritual energy we put forth in our performances. So having this many shows (and this much travelling) in that short amount of time was a challenge. But what was truly incredible to me was watching how each one of us gave the show our EVERYTHING, every single time. Our passion and commitment to the show and to taking care of eachother became even more apparent when we all needed it the most. As one cast member emphatically put it (and I paraphrase): "I would rather DIE than miss a moment on that stage!" Extreme? LOL maybe. But that individual was dead serious and wholeheartedly understood. It's called LOVE, baby! And we have so much of it. Well... except when we're fighting over a game of Euchre (WWJD?!?).

Aaaanways... it's time for me to get my game face on! Hit the gym, warm up those vocal chords, eat something delicious and prepare for SHOW TIME! I'll leave you with this crrrrazy video from my beloved (and did I mention, crazy?) cast mates Stacey Kay & Rebecca McCauley. This video was clearly made before that hectic week I described above and it's... Oh geeze, it needs no intro. Just laugh. And pray for our sanity. Lol

Click here: PRANK ZONE!

See you next week!
~ Lisa Michelle
Twitter: #GodspellNationalTour

Godspell National Tour: Week 2

It's Friday! Time for me to encapsulate the happenings of week 2 on our Godspell National Tour.

In case you missed the first post, we are the FIRST national tour of this production, and we are still letting that sink in and fester in our happy (and tired) minds, bodies and spirits.

Before I get into the factual business of where we played this week, (venues, cities etc), I would be remiss if I didn't speak about the relationships between our cast, band and crew.

We spend a LOT of time together. There's the show of course, but outside of that, we choose to eat, laugh, play, shop, gossip, meander, sing, facebook, tweet and instagram... TOGETHER. We LOVE this show and more importantly, we LOVE each other! Apparently the kind of chemistry we have flowing between us isn't common place. Even singing & dancing can start to feel like any other kind of work after a while, but we've still got that joyful thing going on. We look after eachother in ways that a healthy family would. If someone is hurt or sick, virtually everyone will offer a hand, an ear or a remedy to help. If one of us is stressed or blue, you can bet another cast member (or two, or three) is on the case and ready to kiss it better. And don't even get me started on the shoulder rubs. With all the physicality Godspell demands of us, there are lots of friendly massage circles happening at any given time. 

Our pre-show group sing/love-fest

Guacamole fights.

Outside Symphony Hall in Springfield, MA

Being far away from home, I've found this closeness to be one of the best things about touring another country for what will be a total of 13-weeks. I miss my family, I miss my home, but all the while, I know I'm wholly loved and taken care of by my Godspell family while we're out here on the road. We really are living out a beautiful, crazy dream.

It's super late on Thursday night/early Friday morning as I write this from my beautiful hotel room at the Sheraton in Springfield, Massachusetts. We performed at the Symphony Hall tonight, which is right around the corner from our accomodations. It's a stunningly beautiful theatre with a grandiose exterior and glamourous interior to match.

Outside Symphony Hall in Springfield, MA

Symphony Hall

Since last Friday's post, we've performed in St.John's NB, then crossing back into the US for New Hampshire, Maine and now, Massachusetts. Some of the more adventurous souls in the bunch spent their downtime discovering these new towns on foot, snapping away at local sites and nature. It is them you have to thank for the following few pics... my downtime was more often spent enjoying the hotel beds and hot tubs :-).

Day off in Maine! Zzzz...

Jesus discovering New Bedford

The show itself has been going well, and many of us in the cast even marvelled at the fact that we're still discovering new things within our characters and stories every day. I think we're all grateful (and surprised) that no matter how many times we do this, it never gets old. 

I mentioned our tour bus in my last post, but only briefly. Well it's AWESOME, and not because it's decked out with comfy beds, a kitchen and a living room (it's not), but because a) we still like eachother, b) we all packed headphones, pillows & snacks and c) we have the coolest, down-homiest bus driver anyone could ask for. His name is Robert and he's funny, kind, and plays sweet throw-back tunes when he's good and ready.

Ok, my lids are getting heavy and I really want to get up on time for the Lobster Benedict I saw on the breakfast menu before we have to leave.  We're off to Greenvale, New York in the morning and performing at their Tilles Center at night.

Please wish us broken legs! And check back for next week's new news :-)

Xo

~ Lisa Michelle

Twitter: #GodspellNationalTour

Godspell National Tour! Week 1

We've just hit the end of week one on our 13-week National Tour of "Godspell"! It's already been a fun & crazy ride and we still have so much more to go.

First stop was Shubert Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut (with a one-night stop in Syracuse along the way). I don't know if it's possible to exaggerate the magnificence of this particular venue or how excited we all were to be performing there. But it was INCREDIBLE! Built in 1914, it has 1600 ruby-coloured seats, golden nostalgic design and a rich Broadway history... which OUR cast of Godspell is now blissfully a part of :-)

We spent the better part of our first soundcheck taking photos (shhh!) from the stage, OF the stage, of eachother on the stage, the marquee... you name it, we were taking pictures of it. We all had the same "I'm-doing-something-right-with-my-life" grin on our faces the whole damn day. It's not that any of us are new to performing in theatre... some of us may have even played bigger houses than the Shubert. But it wasn't about size... the MAGIC in this building was undeniable.

We opened the show, and ultimately our tour, at the Shubert on Friday October 25th. It's safe to say 'we brought it', because they loved us as much as we loved them! We had new friends/fans waiting for us at our stage door for pictures, autographs or just to tell us to our faces how much we made them laugh, cry and love.

Our experience at the Shubert was THE perfect way to kick off this tour and after our four shows were done (two nights, two matinees), it was hard to say goodbye. After all, they even hosted our opening night party rife with hot eats, drinks on the house, and lots and lots and LOTS of dancing. But... we did leave our mark, as indicated by the signatures we scrawled on an inside wall* as the 1st EVER National Tour of this Stephen Schwartz musical. Thanks New Haven!!!

We got on our tour bus that Sunday and headed for our next venue: Fredericton Playhouse in New Brunswick, but with another one-night stop in Portsmouth to ease the stress of an uber-long drive. Oh, someone remind me to say more about the tour bus and border crossings in next week's post. Fun times. (Was that sarcasm or do we really love it? You'll have to wait and see!)

The Fredericton Playhouse has 763 seats and has a very intimate set up. I felt like we could reach out and touch the audience at any time (and if you've seen Godspell, you know that we DO). I, personally, love the feeling of being physically close to the people I'm performing for. They can hear us breathe, see our sweat and our tears. They have the opportunity to be a part of our world in a way that's not as accessible in larger venues. But let's be honest... I love it all and I would perform just about anywhere.

Anyways, we had one of our best ever shows on our second night in Fredericton. The chemistry and connection between us just seemed especially 'right' and it shone through. Meh... Perhaps one or two cast mates may have seen it differently, but 'alas for you', I'm the one who volunteered to write the weekly blog ;-).

Right after that show, we had THE best Hallowe'en party in our hotel's party room. The cast, band and crew came together in the form of a grease monkey, a couple kitty cats, a hamburgler, a lumberjack, a girly boy (nothing wrong with that), a botox junkie and more. Definitely more. (You really, really need to meet these people).

As I write this, we have one more night here in Fredericton than we're off to St. John's! At some point, we're heading back into the U.S.... I can't remember where and I'd check for you, but my room service has just arrived (See ma? I told you this was a real job!).

More updates next week!

~ Lisa Michelle
Twitter: #GodspellNationalTour

GODSPELL! (again:-)

This morning, I embark on the first day of the second chapter of what was one of the coolest experiences of my life.  It's Day One of rehearsals for the musical GODSPELL which I had the blissful pleasure of performing in last summer with (almost) the same cast of awesome human beings.  Last time around, we did this show for a few weeks at Victoria Playhouse in Petrolia, which might be the sweetest small town I've ever been to. Think the town of "Charming" in the TV show Sons of Anarchy, but without the sexy motorcycle gang.

Well this year, our cast of 10 was invited to re-live this vibrant telling of the Gospel of Matthew in another small town called St. Jacobs (Waterloo, Ontario). Godspell is an amazing piece of work composed by Stephen Schwartz (Pippin, Wicked, The Prince of Egypt) so the show's success since it's conception in 1971 until now is not surprising.  In 1972, it played at the Royal Alexandra Theatre and starred Victor Garber as Jesus, and also Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Gilda Radner & Martin Short.  Yeah.


Since then, Godspell has been staged in countless high school productions, community theatres, multiple stints on Broadway(right up until last year) and now... it's here, with us :-).  And this makes me SO happy!  Because in addition to our love for the story and the work, we had this crazy-cool-bond-y-connection-y thing going on that no one wanted to let go of - the cast, the crew, the band... everybody got caught up, at least a little.  So... by the time our six weeks together had flown by in Petrolia and the show was coming to a close, we were all praying for some sort of remount, swearing that we would all remain friends forever no matter what happens, and exchanging necklaces with viles of eachother's blood as pendants.

Ok, maybe we didn't get into bio hazardous risks, but you hear what I'm saying. The show was undeniably special and we knew it. We FELT it! So imagine the spaz we all had when we got the news that it WAS going to be remounted! Drayton Entertainment, a prominent fixture in the Canadian theatre landscape, had picked it up and was taking us all with it!

So here we are, 2013, doing it again - praying hard and about to work even harder to make it as inexplicably awesome as we did before.

By now, you must be dying to see show, right?  I really think you should.  Godspell runs from October 2nd to 20th at St. Jacobs Playhouse in Waterloo, Ontario. There's a variety of show dates and times between there, so break out your smartphone calendar and get your tickets before it sells out... again ;-)  .

TICKETS & info: www.draytonentertainment.com
Directed by: David Hogan
Musical Director: Mark Payne
Choreographer: Adele Mackenzie


xoxox